# SERVER: Verbing properties

"Seth I. Rich" (sir@po.cwru.edu)
Wed, 3 Apr 1996 05:47:04 PST

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    Vijay Saraswat <saraswat@parc.xerox.com>:
    >When I run my code and it accesses your property, I know that
    >none of your code ran ... I know that as long as my current task
    >does not suspend, and I do not invoke verbs on you, the data I
    >read will remain unchanged. And that I (my task) will not be
    >charged excessively because you ran a big verb on my watch when I
    >just wanted the value of a variable. You just read out a value
    >for me, you dont compute arbitrarily. Major win for a language
    >for reactive computation.

    This is IMO very very serious.  I know that, given the code segment

      temp = foo.bar;
      /* some random computation which
         I -know- does not suspend */
      foo.bar = temp;

    no code AT ALL was executed besides mine.  I know that foo will continue
    to exist and that it will have a bar property, and I don't need to keep
    checking that the value stored there has changed.

    I would argue that this is a good case for either putting property access
    (property-value-setting) into a builtin (perhaps transparently), or creating
    strong motivations for programmers to write to your specs.

    Seth----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Seth I. Rich - sir@po.cwru.edu
                                     There is nothing more precious than
    Rabbits on walls, no problem.    a tear of true repentance.